Vicki Rosenzweig wrote:
Well, to some
people it seems ungrammatical, since "they" hasn't been
used as a singular pronoun until very recently,
Your definition of "very recently" must include the early 19th
century, then: Jane
Austen used "they" as a singular pronoun. In fact, singular they is
older than
"generic he".
Yes, I was aware of Jane Austen, but she was very much an exception --
the vast majority of writers used "generic he" throughout the 18th and
19th centuries, and through most of the 20th. I think Samuel Taylor
Coleridge may be the one other notable exception.
It is also true, as Dante Alighieri pointed out, that "singular they"
was used in the 16th century and through some of the 17th. But medieval
English usage is hardly a good guide for modern English usage.
so you end up
with the "wrong" verb tenses. So when you say
something like "They fall asleep as they watch TV," it sounds very
much like you're talking about multiple people.
And when you say "Ask your doctor what he thinks" it sounds entirely as
though you're talking about a man, whereas it's entirely likely that
you're talking
about a woman.
Neither is perfect.
That's certainly true.
I personally try to avoid using either construction, rewording sentences
when possible, because "generic he" strikes me as old-fashioned, while
"singular they" strikes me as overly colloquial.
-Mark